Presidents of the CIH and CIEH urge action to address the human and financial costs of poor housing

18 February 2010

"The Marmot Review (Fair Society, Healthy Lives) and the Building Research Establishment (BRE) report on the real cost of poor housing published this week show that even though we live in an adverse economic climate we must take this opportunity to plan on how to do things differently" said CIEH President Stephen Battersby after a meeting with CIH President Howard Farrand.

"Housing is a key determinant of health, and with an ageing population (the pensionable age is also moving towards 68) we have to do more to ensure that we have a healthy population and reduce the effects of poor housing on NHS costs", said Mr Farrand. "Action is also required so as to reduce the adverse effects on children and their education from inadequate housing" he said.

"One key policy objective from Marmot was the creation and development of healthy and sustainable places and communities and in this area the two Institutes will work together." said Dr Battersby. "As the BRE report has shown more than four million seriously unhealthy homes exist in the private sector and these cost the NHS £600 million a year and society as a whole £1.5billion."

Mr Farrand said "We will be urging central and local government and the third sector to take on board these reports and raise the priority given to improving conditions in homes and local environments (building on the Total Place approach). We know what can be achieved from our experience with the Decent Homes Programme. We can build on this experience and expertise to further reduce the impact of housing on health inequalities across tenures". He continued "local authorities have a wide range of powers that enable them to take action, I hope that they will use these and work increasingly with Primary Care Trusts and others to address the problems."

"At a time when resources in the public sector will be restricted it is important that all possible sources of funding are used as efficiently as possible with resources shared (including within communities) to better address the impact of poor housing on health and help reduce the health gradient" concluded Dr Battersby.

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